Annette Alaine grew up
in a working class neighborhood in the suburbs of Washington DC with her five
siblings. She has lived in Florida for over forty years. The wild, natural
beauty of the land around north Florida is a frequent subject of her
poetry.

Anuja Ghimire is from
Kathmandu, Nepal. Her poetry is published in Red River Review, Words
Like Rain, Glass, Clay, Ishaan Literary Review, The Rainbow Journal, La.Lit
Literary Magazine, Stone Path Review, the MOON Magazine, Right Hand Pointing,
The New Verse News, Zest Literary Magazine, Euonia Review, Shot Glass Journal, and Constellations.
She lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband and two little girls and writes
poetry. Some of her published writing can be found in http://saffronandsymmetry.tumblr.com.

Note: On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, the second
human spaceflightmission in the
United States Apollo space program, sent back a photograph of Earth as seen
from their obit around the moon. Up to that point no one had seen the Earth as
it looked in space. Those, like me, who saw this revelatory photograph were
amazed at the sight—and, most of all, at the beauty and delicacy of the planet
on which we live.

David W. Landrum’s poetry has been published,
most recently, inAngle,
Windhover, Antiphon, Measure, andThe
Literary Bohemian. He teaches English at Grand Valley State University in
Allendale, Michigan.

A tremor rumbles down a cracked alley, asI touch the blurry feathers of dead birds

Lurching in the eddy of a splintered landscape,My mind searches for truth but finds only lies

Hiding in corroded iron rods in broken cement,I close my eyes and I disappear into memories.

THE WOODS

My thoughts are reflected in broken visions, my mind mulls over the
world in a muted awareness. I live in a fading consciousness where
images are shattered into bits of the past and present: My mind heavy
with an earthen haze, my soul lost in images of the past. I stumble
painfully down the dusty path rutted in the damp earth, realizing this
trek may be my last, I sigh in sadness. So much to do, so little time
left. Days fly by like minutes, years like months, images… lost visions
shattered into pieces of crystal upon the cobblestones of my life.

I look to my left and see a doe nibbling on fresh new grass, to my
right, a squirrel sits up with an acorn in its mouth, in front of me
lands a blue jay pecking at bugs in the grass, nonchalant of my
existence. I pause from the darkness within and my mind emerges into
the light to concentrate on the beauty of the meadow displayed in
front of me. I smell the fresh aroma of wild flowers and the damp
earth. I look to heaven and give thanks that I can enjoy the
peacefulness and beauty of this wooded place. I smile as the sun
suddenly peeks out from behind the dark clouds and places soft beams
of warmth on my shoulders.

James G. Piatt is a
retired professor. He is the author of 2 poetry books “TheSilent Pond,” (2012) and
“Ancient Rhythms,” (2014); a third book isscheduled
for release in late 2015. He has also published 3 novels, “The Ideal Society,”
(2012), “The Monk,” (2013), and The NostradamusConspiracy, (2015), over 625 poems, 35 short stories, and 7 essays.His poem “I Am” was nominated for the 2014
Pushcart award, his poem“The Night Frog”
was nominated for Best of Web 2013, and his poem “InThe Meadow,” was selected as 1 of the 100 best poems
of 2014.

Jane McCafferty lives
in Pittsburgh, PA, teaches at Carnegie Mellon, and is co-founder of the
Pittsburgh Memoir project. She is co-author of a book of poems, From
Milltown to Malltown, by Maris Press, and the author of four books of fiction,
by HarperCollins and U. of Pittsburgh press. Her poems, stories and essays have
appeared in a variety of journals, including Witness, and The Kenyon Review.
Her work has received an NEA, two Pushcarts, and The Drue Heinz award for
literature, and other awards.

Jessica
Wiseman Lawrence studied creative writing at Longwood University, earning a
B.A. and participating in the university's M.F.A program. You can find her
recent work upcoming or published in Helen, Origins, Antiphon, and Third
Wednesday, along with many others. She lives in rural central Virginia, where
she is an office manager by day.

Jill Maria Murdy is the Director of Liturgy and Music at
Saint Frances Cabrini Parish, West Bend, WI. She holds an MA in theology from
Notre Dame, and a BS in Music from Dickinson State University. She writes
a weekly column for a liturgical journal, and has published many articles in
professional journals. When she is not doing that, she is cooking, making
music, entertaining her cat, or writing poetry. Murdy has a special love hate
relationship with the haiku.

Who does not have memories, bad cinder
charcoal smoke screen in the dark flame?

September comes early in Canada-October
in the USA.

Leaves fall early swirling in
touchdowns both sides of the border.

September north, but at least the
bullets cease.

Cast a poem South, you likely die in
Vietnam or come back wounded.

Cast a poem North, you likely suffer
mental illness but come back on pills.

Here comes again, thunder, in the rain,
stroke by lightening,

war bore crossing a border divide.

Michael Lee Johnson
lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era: now known as the
Illinois poet, from Itasca, IL. Today he is a poet, freelance writer,
photographer who experiments with poetography (blending poetry with
photography), and small business owner in Itasca, Illinois, who has been
published in more than 875 small press magazines in 27 countries. He edits 10
poetry sites. Michael is the author of The Lost American: "From Exile
to Freedom", several chapbooks of poetry, including "From Which Place
the Morning Rises" and "Challenge of Night and Day", and "Chicago
Poems". He also has over 74 poetry videos on YouTube.